Elevating how services approach cultural connections with children
Building Practice Evidence
Building evidence is critical in understanding and planning for the best ways to deliver services. For those working with children and families from diverse backgrounds, there is significant value in understanding theoretical research as well as considering evidence from practice, which includes feedback from service users such as children, young people and families as well as service providers such as ethnic or faith specific communities and bi-cultural staff.
CulturalWorks strongly advocates for maintaining evidence-based services and is committed to providing guidance to partner agencies to assist organisations consider how their data collection processes includes data on children and families from culturally diverse backgrounds.
CulturalWorks encourages organisations to consider implementation initiatives that include:
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Reinforcing every team member’s responsibility to contribute to service delivery and reporting processes.
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Monitoring and reporting regularly on practice activities including the children’s and carer’s cultural elements such as ethnicity, language and faith.
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Showcasing examples of cultural care planning, cultural life story work and other cultural activities including sharing information about cultural celebrations to enhance cultural awareness and learning.
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Actively seeking regular feedback from children in care, young people who have moved into independence as well as parents, carers and bi-cultural team members on what is culturally of value to them.
Practice Audits
Continuous improvement is “everyone’s business” and all staff have a role in ensuring that services provided to all children and their families, including those from culturally diverse backgrounds, are the best that they can be.
Leaders have a central role in facilitating practice audits which regularly measure, and as needed, remediate the team's practices. Practice audits contribute to building a practice culture of accountability, learning and improvement.
CulturalWorks provides guidance to leaders and teams to establish quality safeguards that consider legislative, contractual and accreditation standards and systematically and consistently monitor practice evidence.
Cultural Data
CulturalWorks recognises the value in collecting data that is used to inform and improve practices, including identifying the children and families from culturally diverse backgrounds.
Children and families from diverse backgrounds are not a homogenous group. Understanding the potential cohort at a macro (CALD group generally) and micro level (settlement, ethnicity, language, faith more specifically) can enhance service delivery.
The use of the S.E.L.F tool to compliment program contractual data reporting, can guide improvements in building cultural awareness, improving planning approaches and the delivering culturally informed and responsive services.
Cultural Works advocates for data collection and reporting, using Settlement, Ethnicity ,Language and Faith for key stakeholders, including:
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Children
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Birth family members
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Carers
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Case Management Team Members